Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day, dedicated to acknowledging and championing the accomplishments of women in sports. It is also a reminder that the fight for equality in athletics is far from over.

Flo Hyman understood that fight intimately. The Olympic volleyball player was a leading advocate for Title IX, and National Girls and Women in Sports Day was created in her honor.

Great progress has been made in the world of sport since Hyman’s work and the passing of Title IX, but there’s still much to be done. Today, only two in five girls participate in sports, deterred by reasons like cost, access to facilities, safety and more. It’s an equity issue our friends at Under Armour are placing front-and-center this year with a commitment to breaking down barriers that keep millions of youth from playing. “Everyone deserves the right to experience the power of sport,” says CEO, Patrik Frisk.

Today, we’re joining Under Armour to celebrate four incredible female athletes whose early involvement in sports launched their successful careers and who continue to inspire us every day.

Kelley O’Hara

The two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medal winner is one of the most influential players in American soccer. O’Hara also hosts the Just Women’s Sports podcast. Now a star defender for the reigning NWSL champion Washington Spirit, O’Hara played forward all her life before switching to left back during the 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament.

O’Hara rose up the ranks as a soccer player in Fayette County, Ga., where she played four years of varsity at Starr’s Mill High School and led the team to a 5A state title as a senior in 2006 with 20 goals and 16 assists. The standout season earned her Gatorade Georgia State Player of the Year honors and a leading role at Stanford as a freshman. In 2009, she won the Hermann Trophy, given annually to the nation’s best player.

Jordan Thompson

The 6-foot-4 Thompson was a key cog on the United States’ 2020 Tokyo Olympics team, scoring 34 points to help eliminate defending champion China in pool play. Despite losing Thompson to injury, the U.S. went on to win its first-ever gold medal.

Thompson starred at Edina High School (Minn.), playing four years of varsity and leading the team in blocks and kills as a senior. She earned her first college scholarship after just two years of club volleyball, and at Cincinnati, where she helped run an athlete bible study in her spare time, she was a three-time unanimous American Athletic Conference player of the year.

Odicci Alexander

The reigning Softball America Pitcher of the Year recently wrapped up one of the most decorated college careers of all time. As James Madison’s starting pitcher for four seasons, Alexander led the Dukes to their first-ever College World Series in 2021. Alexander went 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 64 2/3 innings as James Madison became the first unranked team to advance to the semifinals.

Alexander was raised by her grandparents in Boydton, Va., and taught herself how to pitch by spray-painting targets on her grandparents’ water well. She flew under the radar at small-town Park View High School, and was discovered by a James Madison coach who was in the area to scout the opposing team’s pitcher.

Alexander now pitches for the USSSA Pride after playing in Athletes Unlimited’s second softball season last year.

Kaila Charles

One of the WNBA’s top rising prospects, Charles was selected No. 23 overall by the Connecticut Sun in the 2020 draft. Charles helped Maryland win the Big Ten Tournament her freshman and senior seasons and averaged 13.8 points per game over her career, tied for 12th in program history.

Charles starred for three years at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Greenbelt, Md.) before transferring to nearby Riverdale Baptist School, where she led the team to the national championship game and earned McDonald’s All-American honors. Charles is of Trinidadian and Antiguan heritage, as represented on her custom Under Armour sneakers.

The first two rounds of the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament saw a lot of chalk last week, as the four No. 1-seeds — Nebraska, Texas, Pitt, and Kentucky — all rolled to spots in this week's Sweet Sixteen.

The Longhorns ousted reigning national champion No. 8-seed Penn State with a second-round sweep last Saturday, while Kentucky became the only top seed to drop a single set through the first two matches when the Wildcats defeated No. UCLA 3-1 on Friday.

"I think what I liked is the concentration throughout the entire match. There were no letdowns," said Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott following his team's win over the Nittany Lions. "There's so many good teams right now. The sport continues to grow and continues to be dominant. I told them we don't need to play perfect, but we need to be good enough to win each night, and so that's what we did."

Along with the No. 1 squads, nearly every Top-4 seed advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, with the only Cinderella story coming from the unseeded Cal Poly Mustangs.

The 2025 Big West champions stunned their Power Four opponents last week, taking down No. 5-seed BYU and No. 4-seed USC in five-set thrillers to book a third-round matchup against No. 1 Kentucky — the Mustangs' first Sweet Sixteen berth since 2007 and second since the 1980s.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament this week

The 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament resumes when No. 2-seed Arizona State and No. 3-seed Creighton face off in the first of the two-day Sweet Sixteen slate at 1 PM ET on Thursday, with the Elite Eight then set to compete in the Regional finals on Saturday and Sunday.

All games in the Regional finales of the 2025 Division I tournament will air live on either ESPN2 or ESPN.

Canada women's hockey will have revenge on their minds this week, as the 2025 Rivalry Series between the reigning Olympic champions and Team USA resumes on Wednesday.

After dropping two consecutive results against the US by a combined score of 10-2 to open the sixth annual showdown in November, the series now heads to Canada — with both of this week's games taking the ice in Edmonton, Alberta.

"They had a great start, they have a great team, but so do we," said Canada legend and team captain Marie-Philip Poulin after the first two rivalry tilts. "It's going to be a battle."

With the 2026 Winter Olympics looming less than two months away, both PWHL and NCAA standouts will be using this week's final international window of the year to make their cases for roster spots in Milan, Italy.

With both teams stacked with talent, those who make the final cut are likely to come home with hardware this winter, as five-time champions Canada and the two-time title-winning USA remain the only nations to ever win Olympic gold in women's hockey.

How to watch the 2025 Canada vs. USA Rivalry Series

The puck drops on Game 3 of the annual hockey Rivalry Series on Wednesday before Team USA and Team Canada face-off for the final time in 2025 on Saturday.

Both games will begin at 9 PM ET, with live coverage airing on the NHL Network.

The Big Ten showed off its depth in women's basketball this week, as a record-tying nine teams from the conference made Monday's AP Top 25 poll.

With three teams — No. 4 UCLA, No. 6 Michigan, and No. 7 Maryland — still in the Top 10, the Big Ten has tied its own record for ranked squads set in December 2024, as No. 24 Nebraska joined this week's list following a 9-0 start to the 2025/26 NCAA basketball season.

"I've been honored to be a part of this league for the last 13 seasons, working on year 14, where I've watched the [Big Ten] just get better and better," said Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico after Monday's poll drop.

No Big Ten team had a more dramatic weekend than Maryland, who kept their season's unbeaten streak alive with a furious comeback to defeat unranked Minnesota 100-99 in double overtime on Sunday.

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Despite falling behind by nine points in the second overtime period, the Terrapins executed an 8-0 run in just nine seconds to put the game within reach, before guard Saylor Poffenbarger hit the game-winner with just 11 seconds remaining.

"Maryland has a standard," Poffenbarger said after her team-leading 30-point, 10-rebound double-double performance on Sunday. "When you come to Maryland, you know the things that come with it."

2025/26 AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll: Week 6

1. UConn (9-0, Big East)
2. Texas (10-0, SEC)
3. South Carolina (9-1, SEC)
4. UCLA (9-1, Big Ten)
5. LSU (10-0, SEC)
6. Michigan (8-1, Big Ten)
7. Maryland (11-0, Big Ten)
8. TCU (10-0, Big 12)
9. Oklahoma (9-1, SEC)
10. Iowa State (10-0, Big 12)
11. Iowa (9-0, Big Ten)
12. UNC (9-2, ACC)
13. Baylor (9-1, Big 12)
14. Vanderbilt (9-0, SEC)
15. Kentucky (10-1, SEC)
16. USC (7-2, Big Ten)
17. Ole Miss (8-1, SEC)
18. Tennessee (6-2, SEC)
19. Notre Dame (6-2, ACC)
20. Washington (8-1, Big Ten)
21. Ohio State (7-1, Big Ten)
22. Louisville (8-3, ACC)
23. Oklahoma State (10-1, Big 12)
24. Nebraska (9-0, Big Ten)
25. Michigan State (8-1, Big Ten)

Florida State sits on top of the world of NCAA soccer once again, as the No. 3-seed Seminoles staged a 1-0 upset of overall No. 1-seed Stanford in Monday night's 2025 College Cup final to secure FSU's fifth national championship.

For the second time in two matches, sophomore forward Wrianna Hudson played hero by netting the Seminoles' lone goal, breaking Monday's deadlock in the 87th minute to snag the national title — and this year's Offensive Most Outstanding Player award.

"I'm honestly just so grateful. My team worked so hard and I'm so glad we got the [winning] outcome, because we really went through it this game," Hudson said after the match.

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Hudson's game-winner capped an impressive team-wide defensive performance that snapped the Cardinal's 17-game unbeaten streak, with goalkeeper and Defensive Most Outstanding Player Kate Ockene staging nine saves to keep Stanford — and their NCAA tournament record-breaking offense —— scoreless in Monday's rematch of the 2023 College Cup final.

The Seminoles now own five of the last 12 NCAA trophies, with their 2025 College Cup title marking FSU's third championship in the last five years, proving they haven't slowed down since legendary head coach Mark Krikorian left the program to join the Washington Spirit's front office in 2022.

As for the Cardinal, Stanford will rue missed chances after outshooting Florida State 18-8 in Monday's title game.

With a now 3-4 overall record in College Cup finals, Stanford's focus shifts to next season, when they will again aim to secure their first NCAA soccer championship since 2019.